• Many organizations and community groups rely on volunteers for a variety of food events for fundraising. University of Maine Cooperative Extension offers an educational workshop “Cooking for a Crowd” that covers food safety concerns such as planning, storing food supplies, preparing, cooking and serving food, as well as handling leftovers.
   
• Strong, healthy families are the foundation of our communities.
  • University of Maine Cooperative Extension is a member of the Task Force on Early Childhood which is chaired by Karen Baldacci and affiliated with the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet.
  • University of Maine Cooperative Extension and UMaine’s Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center will sponsor a May 2008 conference in Eastern Maine on “Investing in the Development of Maine’s Youngest Minds.”
     
• 4-H is the youth development program of University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
  • A local Penobscot county youth enrolled in University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener program. As a result of attending this training he decided to start a greenhouse business. With the assistance of his parents and a business start-up loan through 4-H he bought a greenhouse and all the materials needed to get started. He managed to pay off the loan and all expenses making a profit of $800.
     
• A local 4-H group in Burlington started a 4-H club and they were able to raise enough funds to build a barn that will host their after-school activities. The facility will allow the group to promote learning about the town’s farming heritage, which was an interest of the youth and local community.
   
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension Small and Home-Based Business Education Program has developed a unique niche during the past two decades as one of Maine’s primary educational resources for people who are starting or growing a micro- and home-based businesses. The program serves as an important resource to these local Maine entrepreneurs while providing a connection to the cutting-edge research taking place at the University of Maine.
  • In 2006, we helped 97 Maine entrepreneurs start-up new businesses and these new enterprises added an estimated 175 jobs to the Maine economy.
     
• A research demonstration project is being conducted at the University of Maine’s Rogers Farm in Old Town. Photovoltaic cells are being used to generate electricity to power the ventilation system in a high tunnel — an unheated greenhouse structure for producing crops in the ground. The purpose is to test the system and to demonstrate to growers the possibilities for using solar power at locations on their farms where electricity is not available.

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